Henry looked at him in amazement.

"Oh, you read then!" he exclaimed.

Of anything so human as reading he had suspected no one in that office.
Then as to the great Mr.Perkins, the time came when he was to prove very human indeed.

For, dying suddenly one day, his various work had to pass into other hands; and, bit by bit, it began to leak out that those missions had not been so industriously devoted to the interests of the firm, nor been so carefully executed, as had been imagined.

For Mr.
Perkins, it transpired, had been fond of his pleasures, could appreciate wine, and liked an occasional informal holiday.